CVM students receive OSU honors

Famke
Aeffner,
DVM, has been awarded an Ohio State University Presidential Fellowship from the
Graduate School. This fellowship is
the most competitive and prestigious scholarly recognition provided by the
Graduate School. It recognizes outstanding scholarship and research
ability, and provides recipients with the opportunity to devote full time to
their dissertation research.

Dr. Aeffner is a CVM graduate student and a graduate
research associate in Dr. Ian Davis’ laboratory in the Department of Veterinary
Biosciences. Her research aims at closing a significant therapeutic gap
in the treatment of influenza patients with respiratory failure; developing new
techniques in the field of lung function analysis in the mouse and redefining
the mouse model of ARDS due to influenza infection in order to identify new
drug targets and test candidate compounds. The ultimate goal is to save human
lives by developing new drugs that prevent respiratory failure.

In other honors, the Graduate School has also selected
Veterinary Medicine graduate student Kshipra Chandrashekhar, DVM, as one of
the 10 allotted nominees from Ohio State to submit a full application for a
Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) International Student Research
Fellowship.

Dr. Chandrashekhar is a graduate fellow
in Dr. Gireesh Rajashekara’s laboratory in the Department of Veterinary
Preventive Medicine and the Food Animal Health Research Program at OARDC.
She is pursuing her doctorate in the area of bacterial pathogenesis relevant to
food safety. Her main focus is to investigate the bacterium, Campylobacter
jejuni, and the influence of the colonization of this enteric pathogen in
different hosts on pathogenesis. She recently presented her findings at
the 63rd North Central Avian Disease meeting held in Minnesota,
where she was awarded the BS Pomeroy Award for Student Achievement in Avian
Diseases Research for a graduate student oral presentation.